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Anne Sexton Quotes

Poet

Anne Sexton was an American poet known for her confessional and autobiographical poetry. Her works delved deeply into personal pain, family relationships, and social issues, profoundly influencing 20th-century poetry.

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Famous Anne Sexton Quotes

“Take adultery or theft. Merely sins. It is evil who dines on the soul, stretching out its long bone tongue. It is evil who tweezers my heart, picking out its atomic worms.”

Heart Long Soul Evil Sin My Heart Bones Tongue Worms Adultery Theft Stretching Dine

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“There is an animal inside me, clutching fast to my heart, a huge crab.”

Heart Animal Huge My Heart Crabs

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“I will be steel! I will build a steel bridge over my need! I will build a bomb shelter over my heart! But my future is a secret. It is as shy as a mole.”

Needs Heart Secret Strength My Heart Bridges Bombs Shy Resolve Shelter Steel Stoicism My Future Moles Bomb Shelters

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“When someone kisses someone or flushes the toilet it is my other who sits in a ball and cries. My other beats a tin drum in my heart. My other hangs up laundry as I try to sleep. My other cries and cries and cries when I put on a cocktail dress.”

Trying Heart Self Sleep Cry My Heart Kissing Beats Balls Dresses Toilets Cocktails Laundry Tin Hang Ups Cocktail Dresses

Author:Anne Sexton

“Maybe, although my heart is a kitten of butter, I am blowing it up like a zeppelin.”

Heart My Heart Kitten Zeppelins Blowing It

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“Do you like me?” No answer. Silence bounced, fell off his tongue and sat between us and clogged my throat. It slaughtered my trust. It tore cigarettes out of my mouth. We exchanged blind words, and I did not cry, I did not beg, but blackness filled my ears, blackness lunged in my heart, and something that had been good, a sort of kindly oxygen, turned into a gas oven.”

Heart Answers Silence Cry My Heart Mouths Ears Blind Filled Tongue Like Me Sat Gas Throat Cigarette Oxygen Blackness Ovens Do You Like Me

Author:Anne Sexton

“It was as if a morning-glory had bloomed in her throat, and all that blue and small pollen ate into my heart, violent and religious”

Ifs Heart Religious Morning My Heart Glory Blue Violent Throat Pollen Morning Glory

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“The windows, the starving windows that drive the trees like nails into my heart.”

Heart Tree My Heart Window Nails Starving

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“My heart is on a budget. It keeps me on the brink.”

Heart My Heart Budgets

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“I love you. You are closest to my heart, closer than any other human being. You are my extension. You are my prayer. You are my belief in God. For better or worse you inherit me.”

Love Humans Heart Belief Prayer Human Beings Love You My Heart Closest Extensions Belief In God

Book:Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

About the Author

Born: November 9, 1928
Died: October 4, 1974
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 369

Books & Sources

Selected Poems of Anne SextonRelated source material

The Awful Rowing Toward GodRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in LettersRelated source material

Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three storiesRelated source material

TransformationsRelated source material

45 Mercy StreetRelated source material

Love PoemsRelated source material

The death notebooksRelated source material

Selected poemsRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self Portrait in LettersRelated source material

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